Feather & Bird Encyclopedia
Search and identify feathers by species — with feather type, plumage, colours, size, habitat, and how to tell them apart in the field.
Hadada Ibis
A loud, common African ibis best known for its raucous dawn call and the iridescent bronze-green patch on its otherwise plain grey-brown wings.
wading bird
California Towhee
The California Towhee is a large, plain brown sparrow relative common in West Coast gardens and chaparral, best known for its rufous undertail and persistent chip calls.
songbird
California Quail
A familiar western quail known for the male's forward-drooping black head plume and scaled gray-brown body feathers, common in chaparral and suburban gardens alike.
gamebird
Tufted Titmouse
The Tufted Titmouse is a common eastern woodland bird known for its jaunty gray crest feathers and soft, plain-gray body feathers washed with rust along the flanks.
songbird
Willie Wagtail
A bold black-and-white fantail relative common across Australia, the Willie Wagtail is known for constantly wagging its long tail from side to side while perched or foraging.
songbird
Whistling Kite
A common, pale kite of Australia and New Guinea best known for its far-carrying whistled call, with buff-brown body feathers contrasting against darker flight feathers in flight.
raptor
Great-tailed Grackle
The Great-tailed Grackle is a large, adaptable blackbird known for the male's exceptionally long, keeled tail and glossy iridescent plumage, now common across much of the southern and central United States and beyond.
songbird
Great Hornbill
The Great Hornbill is one of the largest Asian hornbills, marked by bold black-and-white plumage and topped with a massive yellow-and-black casque. It flies with loud, whooshing wingbeats between fruiting trees in dense evergreen forest.
other
Eurasian Treecreeper
The Eurasian Treecreeper has cryptic, bark-patterned upperpart feathers that provide near-perfect camouflage against tree trunks, paired with stiff, pointed tail feathers that brace it as it spirals up trees.
songbird
Chinese Pond Heron
The East Asian counterpart to the Indian Pond Heron, sharing the same dull streaky body and dramatic white wings, but with a rich chestnut breeding wash on the head and chest.
wading bird
African Sacred Ibis
An African wading bird with white plumage, a bare black head and neck, and loose black plumes on the lower back, historically revered in ancient Egypt and now also established as an introduced species in parts of Europe and North America.
wading bird
Green Peafowl
A peafowl of Southeast Asia showing less difference between the sexes than its Indian relative, with both males and females displaying scaled iridescent green body plumage.
gamebird
Red-vented Bulbul
A common South Asian songbird with a short crest, dark scaly-edged plumage, and a bright red patch under the tail.
songbird
Japanese Quail
A close relative of the Common Quail from East Asia, cloaked in the same streaky brown camouflage but with a warmer rufous wash to the breast.
gamebird
African Collared-Dove
A pale, sandy-toned dove of African savanna and scrub, best known as the wild ancestor of the domesticated ring-necked dove.
dove pigeon
Spotted Dove
A common Asian dove instantly recognized by the broad black collar on its hindneck, which is finely spotted with white like a string of pearls.
dove pigeon
Pink-necked Green Pigeon
The Pink-necked Green Pigeon is a common Southeast Asian pigeon whose males show a soft pink throat and orange breast patch set against green plumage.
dove pigeon
Brown Wood Owl
The Brown Wood Owl is a large, dark forest owl of South and Southeast Asia known for its rich chocolate-brown plumage and heavily barred underparts.
owl
Rufous Woodpecker
An unusually uniform rufous-brown woodpecker of South and Southeast Asia, best known for nesting inside the arboreal nests of tree ants.
woodpecker
Black-headed Mountain Finch
A high-altitude finch of the Himalayas and Central Asian ranges, known for its blackish head and body offset by rosy-pink wing feathers.
songbird
Snowy-browed Owl
This tiny Asian pygmy owl is known for its compact, heavily spotted brown plumage and a pair of dark false eye-spots on the nape that help confuse predators.
owl
New Zealand Pigeon
A large, glossy New Zealand pigeon known as the kereru, its head and back gleaming with iridescent green, bronze, and purple set sharply against a clean white belly.
dove pigeon
Puerto Rican Screech-Owl
The Puerto Rican Screech-Owl, locally known as the mucaro, is a small island-endemic owl with soft reddish-brown or grey-brown plumage and a rounded, nearly tuftless head.
owl
Franklin's Gull
A small, elegant gull of interior prairie wetlands, known for its bold white eye crescents, black hood, and one of the longest migrations of any gull, wintering as far south as the coasts of South America.
seabird